


Bet I Can

by ShyFicWriter



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff without Plot, Funny, Gen, Humor, Laughter, Reader-Insert, Yondu Udonta Lives, bet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 02:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16986321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyFicWriter/pseuds/ShyFicWriter
Summary: Rocket doesn’t get how you never seem to laugh and the team starts a bet pool to see who can get you to laugh first.





	Bet I Can

**Author's Note:**

> Another one of those “I must write this down now to get it out of my head.” stories. Hope you enjoy. Maybe I can focus more on my prompts now lol. Inspired by this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCS482_X9_Q

“Geeze! Don’t you ever laugh?!” Rocket exclaimed. He had just finished telling a joke that had the other’s wheezing, and you merely sat there and grinned.

“Well, yeah?” you said, raising an eyebrow. “Just because I didn’t laugh at your joke doesn’t mean that I never laugh.”

“I’ve never seen you laugh. Not once.” the raccoon said indignantly. “I don’t get it! I mean, you look at Quill’s face every day, that alone should do it!”

“Hey!” Peter protested. Drax laughed and pointed at him.

You stand, rolling your eyes and sigh with a smile. “I don’t know what to tell you.” you say shrugging your shoulders and heading off to finish your chores.

When you were gone Peter spoke to Rocket. “Bet you 20 units I can make her laugh before you can.”

“You’re on, Star-munch!”

“Can I get in on this? I can make anyone laugh, I’m hilarious.” Drax said, earning a snort from Rocket. “See.”

“Um, sure buddy.” Peter said with a grin. “Anyone else want in?”

Kraglin and Yondu opted to join the bet, while Gamora chose to stay out of it and Mantis and Groot were happy enough just watching to see who would win.

They set some ground rules.   
Rule 1: No one could tell you about the bet, for obvious reasons.  
Rule 2: Only up to three attempts per day per person, too many and they thought you might get suspicious.   
Rule 3: No physical humor, i.e: No trying to make you laugh by tripping or otherwise injuring someone else. (This rule was mainly for Rocket, again for obvious reasons.)  
Rule 4: If one of them did succeed in making you laugh it had to be in front of at least 2 other people or it didn’t count. Witnesses or it didn’t happen, in other words.

Not unexpectedly, it didn’t take long for you to figure out they must have had some sort of bet going on. It was immediately obvious they were all trying different ways to make you laugh.

First, there was Drax. He would come up to you at least twice a day with a joke, none of which were terribly good. He would ask you something like “Why did the chicken cross the road?” or “Why is 6 afraid of 7?” and you’d shake your head with a grin and say you didn’t know, even if you did know the punchline. Then he’d say the punchline, sometimes incorrectly or even the completely wrong punchline for the joke being told, but he would still laugh as if it was the greatest joke in the world.   
You’d smile and tell him “Good one, Drax.” and move on. His enthusiasm was endearing.

Peter was also trying his best. He’d also crack the occasional joke or tell you a funny story. The stories were better than most of his jokes, but by now you had figured out what they were trying to do and weren’t going to give them the satisfaction of getting more than a smile, knowing it would make them crazy. You had to have your own fun too, right?

Peter was slightly salty about not having gotten you to laugh yet. He knew one surefire way that was just bound to work, but unfortunately he couldn’t use it. You see, you were also Terran and therefore you were likely also ticklish. It could be an easy instant win for him, even if it might be considered cheating. However, because of the witnesses rule, he didn’t dare try it. To do so would be to inevitably out himself to the team on this closely guarded secret “Terran weakness” and he wasn’t about to risk it for a bet. He’d never live it down. The only other person who knew about it was Yondu, who Peter had convinced years ago that Terrans outgrow it as they got older and he planned to keep it that way.

You noticed that Kraglin was trying as well, though not quite as hard as the others. He did happen to have better jokes, however, most of them pun based. His embarrassing Peter stories were fairly funny too, and you almost forgot you were making an effort not to laugh when he told the one about Peter having a prank backfire on himself and Peter walked as he was telling it, complaining, “Oh c’mon dude! Not cool!”

Then there was Rocket. His approach was a little different at first, like how one day he jumped out of a cabinet you were opening and scared you half to death.  
“SON OF A FUCK!” You cried out, jumping back and clutching your chest to stop your heart from escaping. Rocket, of course, was laughing hysterically.

“What? That was supposed to be funny!” he half laughed, half complained. 

“You nearly gave me a heart attack, you demon monkey!” you scolded, panting. “Get out of here before I rip your tail off!”

He complained and accused you of having no sense of humor, but he did stick to more conventional methods to try and get a laugh out of you after that, none of which were successful in getting more than a grin out of you.

Yondu didn’t really seem to be trying anything at all and you assumed that perhaps he wasn’t in on whatever bet the other three had going, as it had been going on for nearly a week and he just went about his days as normal, same as Gamora and Mantis. However, you had a feeling Gamora at least knew about the bet even if she wasn’t participating, as you caught her several times rolling her eyes at some of Peter’s lamer attempts. Groot almost seemed oblivious to it all.

A couple more days passed like this and you were considering telling them you knew what they were up to. You weren’t sure how many more of Drax’s awful jokes you could take, they were starting to get grating.

You walked into the common area where the others were hanging out and sat at the table to doodle while you contemplated just how far you’d let this go. After a few moments Yondu walks into the room and sits down across from you.

You briefly look up from your notepad. “Hey.”

“Wo bolilo bolobo,” the blue man responded.

You raised an eyebrow, taken aback, and look back up at him in bewilderment. “I- I’m sorry?”

“Bo belly bolya boolya bo.” Yondu replied as he looked you dead in the eye.

“What?” you set your pen down.

“Bah beloo.”

“What are you doing?” you say, semi-exasperated and fairly confused.

Yondu leaned back and gestured as if he were just talking about the weather, “Bo belly bolya wobolilo.”

“Whatever.” you say, grabbing your pen again and doing your best to brush him off as he finished his sentence of gibberish.

Yondu continued to watch your expression as you tried to go back to doodling and saw the corners of your mouth twitch and your nostrils flare. Jackpot.

“Bo bolya belly belly.” he started again, this time in a tone one would use if they were being slightly overdramatic about being bored as he leaned forward and folded his arms over the table.

You looked back up at him, concentrating on looking annoyed.  _‘So, he’s in on it too.’_  you thought. 

“Obele ubelue bar berllo.” he continued, making expressions as if this was just a normal conversation about what he did over the weekend. “Bobillo wobilli bobilly.” 

The others had become intrigued by this and watched on as the blue man spouted gibberish and you became flustered. You could hear Kraglin cracking up over on the couch.

“Are you done?” you asked, trying to keep your composure. You narrowed your eyes in an attempt to look as irritated as possible.

“Bo belly bolya be bo. Bah beloo. Bo belly belly.”

You could feel the corners of your mouth start to twitch again and you clenched your jaw. You’d be damned if you were going to let this… this ridiculousness break you. Not after over a week of holding it together, dammit!

Yondu continued his babbling as he watched your resolve slowly chip away. He had a feeling this would work. While the other’s had been busy pulling all their tricks from their hats he simply watched on to see what didn’t work and what came close, feeling out what your sense of humor might be.   
After a few days it became apparent that you had a sense of humor closer to Kraglin’s, as his attempts garnered the biggest and most genuine grins from you. Therefore, something ridiculous like this, which always cracked Kraglin, was worth a shot trying on you.

You shook your head in feigned annoyance and looked back down at your notebook once again, cursing yourself as your mouth turned upward in a grin that you could no longer suppress.

Rocket noticed this and smacked Peter to get his attention and whispered. “I think she’s finally gonna crack!” 

Drax looked mildly confused, expressing that he didn’t understand why you would find that funny only to be shushed by Peter.   
Normally Peter would have been salty knowing he was likely losing the bet but as of right now none of them really cared who won anymore as long as  _someone_  could finally crack you. It had been over a week and they had already used up all their ideas and started to think the endeavor was impossible. At least now they might get to see if it was even possible to completely crack you.

“Wobolilobolobo Bo belly bolya wobolilo.” He took your notepad now to get your attention, turning it towards himself and pointing at different parts of your doodles and commenting on them in gibberish. 

You inhaled sharply through your nose and clenched your fists, clinging to the last strings of your composure as you felt laughter trying to force it’s way up your throat.  _‘Dammit!’_  This wasn’t fair. You were going to lose it to this buffoonery, of all things. It wasn’t just the fact that he was babbling gibberish that was cracking you, it was the fact that he was doing so without even cracking a smile himself. He was doing it all completely deadpan and that just made it worse.

Kraglin was in no better shape from across the room. He was biting his fist to try to quell his own laughter. He never could take it when Yondu started babbling. The rest of the team were intently watching now, realizing that this was going to be the moment. You were breaking.

He looked at you and turned your notebook back around, pointing at it once last time. “Ubelue bar berllo.”

You couldn’t take it anymore. You finally broke with a short mix between a strangled chuckle and a snort, and from there it was over. 

As soon as you broke Yondu changed the tone of his babbling to one someone would use if they were trying to figure out what the joke was, and that only opened the dam wider for your giggles to escape. You covered your mouth but that couldn’t stop them. When this happened he changed tone again to one of mild offense. “Obele ube wobo berllo.” he said, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes and looking offended that you were laughing at him. This, of course, only made your giggles turn into full blown laughter.

You held your stomach and looked at Yondu with squinty eyes full of mirth. You uncovered your mouth and smacked the table to whine out “Whyyy??” through your laughter. You didn’t expect an answer, but that didn’t stop the blue man from providing one in gibberish to you, which made you bring your forehead to the table in helpless laughter as you held your sides. You laughed like this for a good 10 to 20 seconds before you were able to lift your head and try to catch your breath. Of course when you did that then he started back up with the gibberish and you broke down all over again, unable to stop yourself.

You were absolutely shaking with laughter by now. “Stop! Stop! Please stop!” you laughed. “I can- I can’t breathe!” you managed to choke out as you panted for air.

Most of the team broke out into grins and giggles as they watched Yondu don a mischievous grin and respond to your pleas with more gibberish, making you stamp your foot and double over once again as you wheezed. 

“Ok! Ok! HAHAHA You win! You- you already won! Please stohop! AHAHA I can’t take it.” you cried out. You couldn’t remember a time when you laughed this hard.

“Hey!” Rocket spoke up. “Who told you about the bet?”

“It-it hehe was obvious.” You get out through residual giggles. “You-you didn’t haha hide it very well.” You rested your head back on the table and closed your eyes as you swallowed lungfuls of much needed air. “Just pay the man… hehe… so he’ll stop.” You panted and avoided looking back up at Yondu, knowing if you did he might start back up with the babbling again and your stomach already hurt from laughing so much.

After a moment of grumbles from the others as they transferred the units to Yondu you finally look up, breathing deeply. You opened your eyes to see a mischievous smirk on Yondu’s face. “Don’t-” you started, but were interrupted with more gibberish from the blue man, making you erupt into giggles again.

“Yondhuhu I said-”

“Wobolilobolobo”

“AhahHAH youhuhu blue aSS-”

“Bo belly bolya wobolilo…”

“STAHP-”

“Bobbily bo bilo boli.”

You were now crying and howling with laughter so hard you couldn’t speak.

“Looks like we found your kryptonite.” Peter laughed. You flipped him the bird.

“I don’t know what kryptonite is, but it must be Kraglin’s too.” Mantis said, pointing at the Xandarian.

You managed to look over through squinty tear filled eyes to see Kraglin absolutely losing his shit along with you. His cheeks were flushed a slightly bluish color and you were momentarily worried before you remembered that would be his normal blush, because of the blue blood and all.

“Cap, please! Hahaha! You’re gonna make me pee myself!” he laughed helplessly, nearly falling off his seat.

Yondu chuckled and stood. “Fine, I guess that’s enough fer tonight. My work here is done.” He stretched and walked out of the room humming to himself, quite satisfied.

Rocket looked at you and Kraglin as you both took this as a moment to breathe, residual giggles still bubbling up. “You guys sure do have a weird sense of humor.” he said, shaking his head. He turned to you, “But at least we know  _you_ can laugh now.” he teased.

You waved him off and leaned on the table, exhausted. “Satisfied? Can you let it rest now, turd muncher?” 

“Hey! Don’t make me pick up where the blue guy left off and have you laughing until you can’t breathe again.”

Too exhausted from laughing yourselves silly to leave and sure he might follow if you did, you and Kraglin both just warned him at the same time.  
“ _Rat._ ”  
“Don’t even _-_ ”

He crossed his arms with a smirk and tried to babble like Yondu had been. However his smirk soon turned to disappointment when he noticed he wasn’t getting even a grin from either of you.

“Oh thank god.” you sigh in relief. “It’s not the same.”

“Good, I would had died.” Kraglin admitted, covering his eyes and slouching down in his seat.

“Oh, you’re no fun.” Rocket complained and left the room, Groot following close behind.

As one would expect, this became the new thing on the ship. Whenever Yondu was just in the mood to mess with you he’d come up and start gibbering as if it was normal conversation. You could always tell when that’s what he was coming for if you were paying attention as there would a a glint in his eye.   
Kraglin came to realize this too and it wouldn’t be a strange sight to see Kraglin quickly leaving a room while trying to suppress a goofy grin or trying to stifle his own giggles after realizing what the Centaurian was about to do and just “ _NOPE_ ”-ing the hell out of there if he valued the ability to breathe.

Sometimes Yondu would leave you a giggly mess, other times he’d keep it up until you were wheezing. Either way was amusing to anyone else who happened to be in the room when it happened, especially Peter, who’d often tease you about getting Yondu to unleash your kryptonite if he thought you needed a laugh. 

Needless to say, you had much more laughter in your life after that bet.


End file.
